ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - While the Stevenson Athletic Center might not be as fancy as Madison Square Garden or the Staples Center, the arena has been the Bard College men's basketball team's lucky charm in 2018.
The Raptors won an ugly, slugfest Friday evening, topping defending regular season Liberty League champion, Skidmore College, 63-58. The win was the team's fourth in as many games at home since the calender turned to January.
To open the contest, Bard started slow. It took nearly three and a half minutes for the Raptors to get on the board, but once they did, they started to click.
A few three pointers, a couple of layups, some tough defense and suddenly, Bard was up 20-11 with just five minutes to go.
However, the Thoroughbreds of Skidmore College wouldn't go down that easily. The visitors rallied and cut the Bard advantage to just 27-25 at halftime.
During the first ten minutes of the second half, it was all Skidmore. The visitors used a 23-11 run to grab the lead at 48-38 with just 10:02 remaining.
The Raptors, just like Skidmore in the first half, weren't quite finished though.
Slowly but surely, the hosts chipped away at the deficit, cutting it down to just three points, 56-53, with four minutes remaining.
From there,
David Runcie and the Raptors' defense took over.
The junior guard scored the final 10 points of the game for Bard, while nailing 8-of-10 free throws down the stretch to ice the win. The defense meanwhile, smothered the Skidmore offense. The hosts only allowed two points over the final four minutes and held Skidmore to a season-low 58 points.
Bard outrebounded Skidmore, 53-35 in the game, with 17 of those rebounds coming on the offense end. As a result, the Raptors finished with 14 second chance points to Skidmore's nine points. That five-point difference ended up being the difference for Bard.
As for statistical leaders, this game was all Runcie. He finished with 17 points, 13 rebounds (six offensive), two assists, two steals and two blocks to lead the Raptors.
Justyn Rogers added 14 points, while
Jelani Bell-Isaac chipped in 11 points.
Edvinas Rupkus (Lithuania) led Skidmore with 17 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
Up next for Bard is the final game of this three-game home stretch. The Raptors host Vassar College tomorrow (1/20) at 4 p.m. and you can follow it right here.
